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The House Ag Committee has heard your voices loud and clear and decided NOT to pursue a vote on HB 3806! This is tremendous news for the families and pets served by non-profit veterinary clinics across the entire state of Texas!

Here’s how you made a difference:

You sent thousands of emails and made about as many calls to the bill’s author and the members of the House Agriculture & Livestock Committee. Representative Springer – the bill’s author and Ag Committee Chair – mentioned that his office alone had received over 2,500 emails! You talked to your friends and family and got the word out on social media. Emancipet’s posts on this bill had over 180,000 impressions (that’s a fancy way of saying how many people saw your posts and shares).

You SHOWED UP at the hearing on Monday to oppose this bill. You waited from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. just for the bill’s hearing to start. You packed the room, and when you finally got to speak, you shared moving stories and facts and made it VERY clear: HB 3806 is bad for Texas pets and bad for the families who love them. Not a SINGLE person showed up to testify in support of this bill. The opposition was simply overwhelming. After listening to hours of testimony opposing the bill, getting thousands of calls, and seeing multiple news outlets across the state cover this story (including two TV news spots featuring Emancipet and our incredible clients here and here), Representative Springer has indicated he won’t pursue further action on this matter. For now, anyway.

First, we want you to know that we are so grateful to you for getting involved with this important issue. The families we serve are grateful that they will continue to have a place to take their pets for critical veterinary care like heartworm treatment, dental care, microchipping, and of course, spay/neuter and vaccines.

We’re also genuinely grateful to Representative Springer for listening to the people of Texas, hearing their clear and compelling concerns, and acting in their best interests by choosing not to move the bill forward at this time.

We learned a lot through this experience, and one of the hard lessons is that we can’t take our ability to serve pets and people in need for granted. We have to stay engaged and aware of what’s happening. We have to advocate more actively for the importance of low-cost veterinary care in our communities. There are still two months left in this legislative session and anything can happen – which is why we must stay informed and at the ready.

We may be asking for your support and action again, either this session or in the future. While we have every indication that this particular bill won’t be moving forward, we do understand that there is an intention to request a study committee on this issue. While this bill may be finished, this issue may well come up again.

Together though, we’ll continue to speak out with and on behalf of people and pets for whom access to affordable care is the very thing that allows them to stay together. Because that’s the biggest lesson we learned: We are a mighty force when we stand together and stand up for compassion. The animals need us, and we need each other.